Customer Reviews

Looking Glass (A Collection)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was almost a toss up, with the "Collectibles" CD being very good with 27 songs as well. The reason I choose this was it also includes some solo work, "Keeping the Customer Satisfied" and "Let's Give Adam and Eve Another Chance", as well as his top tens hits. They are all here, including "Woman, Woman" ,"Young Girl", "This Girl Is A Women Now", "Lady Willpower", "Over You" and "Don't Give Into Him"

B SIDES Such as "Don't Make Promises" and "Daylight Stranger" are included, with choice album filler.

I Just saw Gary Puckett in Ft. Lauderdale at a concert and his voice is still fantastic! Check out his shows, you will enjoy it!

A good low cost CD with great time less cuts. Why not?

This collection contains his all 7 of his top 40 hits, many great album tracks and rarities. Some of the songs have been remixed from the multi-track tapes but the remixes sound just as great as the original mixes and others have been remastered from the original master tapes by Bob Irwin and Vic Anesini. Columbia/Legacy has done a great job with the collection and they favored it to be comprehensive, to have unreleased material and beautifully remastered stereo sound over the four songs from the original Greatest Hits LP from 1970, which has been on CD in the past but is now out of print, that aren't hits. This CD is great for all fans of Gary Puckett & The Union Gap for an affordable price.

The band's gimmick (dressing in Civil War garb) wasn't enough to propel them into the national spotlight. What did it was the vocal pipes of frontman Gary Puckett. His soaring vocals propelled their first four hits into the Top Ten: "Woman, Woman," "Young Girl," "Lady Willpower" and "Over You"--all of them million sellers and all of them charted within a year's time (December 1967 through October 1968). Essentially a one-trick pony (all four hits being basically the same song), the band would reach the Top Ten only one more time with "This Girl Is a Woman Now" in 1969.

Never the critics' darlings, The Union Gap carved a niche with their power ballad approach. This generous collection gives you all the hits along with minor singles like "Let's Give Adam and Eve Another Chance" and the Puckett solo "Keep the Customer Satisfied." A few years back I heard Puckett perform on the Monkees reunion tour. Time hadn't diminished his voice. It was a real joy reliving those Sixties hits again, just like on this CD. He may not have been the hippest guy in the Sixties, but his songs have become a permanent part of the soundtrack of my youth.

If you're a die-hard fan, Collectables has their first two LPs available as a two-fer; for most fans Looking Glass is all you'll really need. RECOMMENDED

I have enjoyed Gary Pucketts' music since I was 11 years old. I have all of his original albums and singles. This cd is a treat for me.

With five memorable radio hits, "Woman Woman," "Young Girl," "Lady Willpower," "Over You," "The Girl is a Woman Now," and an otherwise commercially obscure catalog, Puckett and band often seem like one-hit wonders. The narrow playlists of oldies radio has reduced their catalog to the essentials (even managing to drop charting singles like "Don't Give in to Him"), and despite Puckett's strong performances on the oldies circuit over the years, the act never seemed to be fully fleshed out in the public's consciousness.

This 1992 Columbia Legacy collection goes a long way in providing the story beyond the hits, both through Al Quaglieri's informative liner notes, and the well-selected track list. As detailed by Quaglieri, the band's story is not too unusual for the era: Puckett and crew came together organically, got themselves a record deal, and found success with material from their manager and other third-party songwriters. Disillusionment set in (Puckett wanted to sing rock, not ballads, other band members wanted to write), and the growing tension caused their producer to leave. A newly assigned producer squeezed out one more hit before Puckett left for an unspectacular solo career. First hit ("Woman Woman") to last ("This Girl is a Woman Now") took a shade over two years.

While none of the album tracks and non-charting singles can match the radio brilliance of the top-40 hits, Puckett's dramatic voice was put to some other good material. Tim Hardin's "Don't Make Promises" is a fine piece of blue-eyed soul, with Puckett's reserve on the verses building to a horn-charged crescendo by song's end. Bassist Kerry Chater's "Wait Till the Sun Shines on You" effectively mixes classical motifs with Puckett's balladeering, and his co-write with keyboardist Gary Withem, "Can You Tell," is a moody gem. Gary Puckett's co-write, "Daylight Stranger," effectively combines bluesy-acoustic guitars and electric organ with an upbeat vocal (rather mindfully of Mike Nesmith's work from the later Monkees years), and Puckett's previously unissued "Every Hour," is a sweet folk-calypso.

The remastering, from original multitracks and mix-down masters, shows off the surprising amount of care and musicianship that went into these recordings. The stereo mixes (including first-ever for "Don't Make Promises" and "Daylight Stranger") are crisp, and perhaps disarmingly revealing, especially compared to the mono AM broadcast on which the hits originally travelled to listeners ears.

Puckett's catalog is equally well represented by this disc and Collectables' "A Golden Classics Edition." The latter's longer track list includes the same five hits and a larger helping of the band's album tracks; this collection extends a bit further chronologically, including a few of Puckett's post-Union Gap solo tracks ("I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" "Gentle Woman").

This cd goes to prove that gary had and still has one of pop music's greatest voices. the song looking glass could have easily been a bit hit if it had been released. every song on the cd is very well done.

This is Gary Puckett at his best. A must have if you are a Gary Puckett fan. I have seen him many times in the last few years and he still is great. Always a fantastic show. One of the great voices.

I won't concentrate on the songs on this collection, which are all absolutely WONDERFUL, and are the best sounding versions of the recordings I've heard to date.

The problem is that this is NOT a regular CD but is instead a BURNED CD-R.

In very small print on the back cover and disc it states "Compact Disc CD-R Format."

When I pay full price, I expect a regular CD unless told otherwise, and in fact when I opened the shrink wrap I found several FINGERPRINTS and SMEARS on the data side of the disc I had to clean off.

I have two CD players this disc plays just fine in, but one, which doesn't like CD-Rs I've burned myself, doesn't like this disc, either.

So beware - do NOT buy this disc unless you have no problem paying the listed price for a burned CD-R.

(Yes, I know the listing has a CD-R note on it; I must have missed that when I ordered it, so it's my own fault, but I was purchasing this to replace a copy of the factory pressed CD I somehow lost and clicked "Add to Cart" a little too fast.)

So five stars for the music, minus three stars for the format.

This is a complete collection of their hits plus it also contains some album cuts that you can't find anymore.

Most male singers, especially rock ones, are known for having raspy voices with no real substance. Take away the guitars and the drums, and they can't even get through American Idol. Not Gary Puckett. This guy can really sing and is probably the best male pop or rock voice of the 60s. I can listen to this voice all day. This collection really stands out because it has some of his very best: Woman, Young Girl, Lady Willpower, and so many more. If you look the unique pop/rock of the 60s and vocal talent, this cd is a real treat. Move over David Cook, Chris Daughtry and so many others--Gary Puckett is the real thing.